


Her Doctor

by Haely_Potter



Series: Bending the Universe [10]
Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Dimension cannon!Rose, F/M, Gen, Reunion, Timey-Wimey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-19
Updated: 2013-10-19
Packaged: 2017-12-29 20:52:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1009970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haely_Potter/pseuds/Haely_Potter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor and River watch Rose disappear in an alley and then hear Rose ask them a question - behind them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Her Doctor

She doesn’t notice him at first. Why would she? She’s looking for a man with gravity defying hair and pinstriped suit, not one with floppy hair and a tweed jacket.

In fact, he barely registers in her mind at all until she hears the curly haired woman next to him call him Doctor. That’s when she turns to look at them, an automatic response to the name of her beloved.

He’s standing five feet away from her in the London street. People are still walking past them, between them. He is pale, like he’s seen a ghost, and his eyes are wide, frozen on her. He doesn’t react to the woman calling his name or shaking his shoulder, just stares at Rose, not believing she’s there.

She looks him in the new eyes (green this time) and still reads him like a book. She reads his recent history in them (a thrilling adventure), as well his long term history (he’s been miserable for quite some time with a few happy moments thrown in). The loneliness is easy, he’s always been lonely as long as she’s known him, alone inside his head in a way a telepathic being isn’t supposed to be. The loss is a little harder, not because he hadn’t lost much before she knew him but because it’s a different kind of loss, the loss of a lover rather than friend or family. There is determination in his eyes too, determination to go on despite the pain the loneliness and loss generate, determination to keep the universe turning. Longing is a new one in the way he looks at her. He hadn’t had to long for her when she was with him because, quite frankly, she would have done anything for him (still would).

He takes a halting step towards her, and she sees his hands twitch in an aborted movement.

She closes her eyes and curses silently. Of course she had to find a future him first, one who hadn’t seen her for a long time, going by his reaction. Universe just couldn’t give them a break, could it?

She opened her eyes again and the Doctor was standing just outside her personal space, a space he once hadn’t minded invading all the time every day.

He speaks first.

“This is the first time I see you with these eyes,” he confesses. “And you’re just as beautiful as when they were icy blue and dark brown.”

“Considering I’m human?” she teases him, arching an eyebrow playfully.

The Doctor shakes his head. “Considering nothing. My ninth self… he couldn’t admit he thought you beautiful so backhanded compliment it was. My tenth self… do you know what his first thought was? _She’s beautiful_. Then it was all new teeth and Barcelona.”

“Sweetie, who’s this?” the curly haired woman asks, a hand on his elbow.

“River!” he yelps and turns to her, as if just remembering she is there at all. He blinks at her for a few seconds. “Oh! Right! River, this is my Rose Tyler, searching for a past me to help save the multiverse. Rose, this is Doctor River Song, archaeologist,” he says, sneering the last word like it’s a curse.

“ _Your_ Rose Tyler?” Doctor Song asks, eyebrows arched. To Rose it’s clear she hasn’t heard of her before and she isn’t surprised.

“Yes, mine, I’d only ever share her with myself,” the Doctor confirms. “Just like I’m hers even though I haven’t seen her for close to a hundred and eighty years.”

Rose knows for sure now that this isn’t the Doctor she’s looking for, but she’s missed him (any him, every him) and suddenly she’s hugging him. He tenses at first, like he isn’t used to getting hugged, but then he relaxes and hugs her back just as tightly, burying his nose in her hair. He’s still tall enough that her feet don’t touch the ground and he still smells of Time and the TARDIS. His pulse is double speed as always and she feels his hearts beat against her chest. (She’s missed the beat of his hearts, the steady one-two-three-four. Or the one-two-three-four, one-two-skip, one-two-three-four as it sometimes seemed to be.)

(He’s still her Doctor.)

“I’ve missed you,” she says.

“I miss you,” he tells her. “Forever.”

They draw back reluctantly and the Doctor puts her back on the ground just as her dimension cannon beeps, announcing full charge.

He glances down at her pocket. “That’s the dimension cannon then?”

“Yeah,” says Rose and takes a small step back. He makes an involuntary sound of distress and she notices he almost takes a small step forward to follow her. “Universes don’t save themselves.” She turns to Doctor Song. “It was nice meeting you. I’m glad he’s not alone. You wouldn’t believe the stupid things he’d done when he was alone.”

“Oi!” the Doctor protests. “Like what?”

“Oh, jumping into the Pit,” offers Rose with a tongue touched smile, the smile she knows he loves. “But I’ve got to go now.” She looks at him one last time before walking to a nearby ally and activating the dimension cannon.

One-hundred-and-seven years later she is standing behind him.

“What was she to you?” Doctor Song asks, jealousy clear in her voice. “Am I not enough?”

”You search me throughout history,” the Doctor says with sad eyes. “Rose searched innumerable parallel worlds and universes, just to give me a message.” He pauses. “I think I can deduce the winner of that contest without calling a friend.”

“And who’d you call?” asks Rose, making them spin around to face her. She knows here are differences they see right away (her hair’s shorter, her clothes are different, maybe they even notice her wedding ring). “Jack would love to answer that question. So would Sarah Jane.”

“Rose?” frowns the Doctor. “But you were just-“ he points to the alley her younger self had just disappeared to.

“One-hundred-and-seven years ago,” she nods to the alley.

“But you still look twenty-three!”

“I moisturize,” she shrugs.


End file.
